Pokémon: What the Heart Wants - Ash Ketchum's Harem Story
by Percyfan1998
Summary: Based off of the original work IchigoHatake did back in 2014, read as Ash tries to come to terms when on the first day of his sophomore year he finds himself receiving unwanted attention from a number of girls of all different personalities. Ash's POV. Advanceshipping, Amourshipping, AshxUrsula, Imaginationshipping, Negaishipping, Pearlshipping, Pokeshipping.
1. A Start of Strange Luck! (& Intro)

**Author's Note: This fanfic will be put under a Rated T rating due to possible violence, some general anime like perverseness and other generic harem moments. Before reading, like how the original creator user IchigoHatake did, as well as thanking her for granting me permission to adapt her original story for my use so I could to complete it. Like her I too will be holding a vote to see which shipping should in the end win, or be most prevalent. Now, onto the fic** **J**

 _Introduction_

Hi there! My names Ash Ketchum, I'm currently 15 years old, close to 16 actually... Well, never mind actually. Anyways, right up until my Sophomore year at Pallet Highschool I never was popular among the girls, not that I minded, but on the first day of school well… It all changed, next thing I knew I had a seven girl sized harem on my case, and in the end five really tried to win me over, it was a crazy experience. As said, I never expected what happened to me to be even possible, but it did, and here's what happened to me and how it all started. Time to start.

 _A Start of Strange Luck!_

"Ugh!" I groaned as loud as I could as I trudged begrudgingly towards school. I hadn't gotten a decent nights rest in a while, talk about bad luck… And to make it worst today was the first day of the new school year, it hadn't helped that I was nearly late starting out too, I don't live that far off of where our campus is, just on the outskirts of Viridian forest really, and for me it'd take about 15 minutes, 10 if you ran.

I never liked school, hell, even after Freshmen year – on a side note, _thank goodness_ we don't have to deal with that orientation stuff, too chummy for my liking – I'm still not use to the school work I have to adjust to doing; it's just so hard! In addition, this year as I saw on my schedule that I'm getting put into classes with a few teachers I'm already familiar with, and that can go either way on good or bad. The one that stuck out the most is Mr. Lance, the schools head battling teacher, and man oh man is he a great battler! But at the same time, he's so _strict_! Mr. Lance may believe like me in the bond between trainer and Pokemon, but on the battlefield he doesn't appreciate it when a student tries to interfere with the battle personally! I can't help it if I'm worried about Pikachu and the others! I want them to succeed sure but not get overly injured!

Then there's history class, oh joy… Ms. Erika is a nice lady, don't get me wrong, I like her well enough and she even put up with me for extra study time after school with a one-on-one session during 'dead week' with me ('Dead week' is a term for the week before finals). But at the same time, her class can be so _boring_ to be in because she's so soft spoken the lectures are about as dry as a Cacnea's body. She's told me personally that she tries to be as interesting as she can be in her lectures, but even so… Well, can't have everything in life now can you?

Anyways, as me and my buddy Pikachu walked along our stomachs growled in sync, because of my late start he and I didn't get a decent bite to eat. "I'm sorry buddy," I sighed, casting a glance at him, "really, truly I am." Pikachu just looked at me and then sighed, tummy growling. "I'll tell you what, we'll make our time with my friends short and run to the school's cafeteria and get something real quick to hold us over till lunch, how does that sound?"

"Pika!" he cried, enthused by the idea. I was glad to hear that. I suppose I ought to describe my looks? Well for this year my attire is a red cap with a white Pokemon symbol, a blue short sleeved jacket with white lining covering a black t-shirt, alongside some baggy black-ish jeans with red and black gloves. I'm also sporting black and red shoes. My mother told me this is some new fashion over in the Kalos region. It's a place my mom once vacationed at and actually she's right there on vacation now, she left before school even started! I can't blame her, she loves going outside Kanto every now and then, gives her a break from her knitting commissions and catering inn day jobs.

Anyways we turned a corner and had just arrived at our school, and there, close to the buildings were my friends, Brock, Gary, Paul, Barry, Drew and a few other kids I had gotten to know over time, but just as I was about to run towards them, a female's voice filled the air behind me.

"LEAF!?" she shouted, I turned around to see a ginger haired girl striding towards me, I barely had any time to dodge her as she power marched and we collided as soon as I saw her.

-BAM!–-

I lurched backwards, falling on my rear. "Ow…" I muttered. My feeling of pain and shock barely subsided when the girl began to ramble.

"Hey!" she shrieked, "watch where the hell your going will you?!"

"Me?!" I said, offended, I was about to snap but she raised her head and we made eye contact, she mellowed out instantly.

"Oh dear… I um… Did it again I see," she murmured, her tone soft.

"Erm, did what exactly?" I said, standing up as Pikachu rejoined my shoulder, she stood up as well. I took this moment to completely get an idea of what this girl looked like, seeing as our school never required us outside of gym class to wear any standard uniforms. She had short ginger hair that was pulled into a side-pony tail; she sported a sleeveless yellow shirt that exposed her belly and jean short shorts that were rolled up a bit. Said shorts were held up by red suspenders and the outfit was completed by a pair of average tennis shoes.

As she stood up and brushed the dirt off the girl simply sighed and explained. "You see, when I get really mad I just lose all concentration, I don't pay attention to my surroundings and my anger focuses onto one person. And unfortunately my anger is so blinding I end hurting innocent people because I'm not thinking straight. I'm sorry for all the trouble I've just caused you."

"Heh heh, no problem at all," I chuckled, "we're not seriously hurt anyways. So… Gonna go give that person you're mad at what for?"

At this her fists clenched, "you bet! Ooh Leaf…" she scowled, "when I find you I'll…"

As she spoke I looked to the side and saw a frantic looking Togepi approach, "Prii…!" it cried. The girl looked over suddenly, paled by the sight, and quickly reached down for it and held the Pokmon close to her, somber taking over her emotions.

"T-Togepi," she whispered. "I… I'm so sorry about that, don't worry, it won't happen again." She turned towards me. "I don't believe we've met, sorry for not introducing myself. I'm Misty Waterflower, sophomore year." She said, extending a hand.

I smiled and held out mine, "Ash Ketchum, same grade as you, and this is my buddy Pikachu."

"Pleasure," Misty smiled, which I returned before she promptly turned around and stormed away, leaving me very dazed.

"Huh… Real strange girl isn't she buddy?"

"Pikachu…" he breathed.

"Something tells me this won't be our last encounter with her." We sighed at that and was about to go say hi to our friends when the school bell rang and everyone began heading to class, Pikachu and I could only groan in defeat, there went our morning agenda… Time to go to class with an empty stomach…

"This sucks," I mumbled.

I marched towards first class, coordinating. Our school has seven subjects in all, several are electives, depending on each day dictates how long we're at school as each day we take a different number of classes, on Monday's, Wednesday's and Friday's it's a six hour day. Tuesday's and Thursday's nears seven… You spend more if you choose to be in a club, which I'd rather not be in, who wants to spend even more time at school than what's necessary? The school's offered electives are meant to be real fun. For this year I chose one of them to be cooking class, with Mom gone I figured it was time that I seriously learn how to cook for myself, but that class won't be in session till seventh period

I walked in and chose a table at random and drifted mentally into limbo. Sometimes I just find my classes really tiring to be in, coordinating often especially. Sometimes it's cool to try out new things and tricks with your Pokemon, but often this just turns out to be too girly. Some guys like Drew may like it, but I'd rather watch a contest than participate in one.

My thoughts were interrupted as one girl in front of me turned and looked me in the eye, a scowl on her face, she had nice red hair I guess, went well with her curls. "My," she said. "You look happy to be here."

"Hard to be motivated on the first day back," I grumbled back. The girl simply harrumphed and went back to her own business. Just as this happened, another girl suddenly approached, this time towards the seat next to mine, she placed a hand on it and smiled at me.

"Do you mind if I sit here? There's nowhere else… Um…"

"Sure, I don't mind," I said, smiling back.

This girl was a brunette; her hair seemed to defy the laws of gravity, and as far as I could tell, she wasn't using hair gel to position it the way it was. She wore a green bandana with a white symbol on it. Sported a long orange shirt that reached her thighs with a black collar with middle white lining and yellow pockets. Black bike shorts that reached her knees and her choice of socks were pure black with orange, black and white shoes.

She sat down and pulled a Pokeball from her hip bag and let out a Torchic which cooed happily at being let out. She smiled at it as it hopped onto her lap and turned to me and Pikachu. "My names May Maple, this class is no doubt my favorite, love coordinating. Someday I'll be the best one ever."

"Names Ash Ketchum. Contests are alright to me, but my dream is to be a Pokemon Master and be the best battler out of Pallet Town."

She nodded at this and turned to her bag and shuffled around in it, what caught mine and Pikachu's attention was the container of Pokeblock and the bag of chips she produced from it. Our stomach's growled loudly in unison. She heard our reactions and gave a soft laugh before proceeding to split the food into halves and pushed it towards us, we couldn't believe it and jumped straight for the food.

"Thank you May!" I said, in between chews, "Thank you so much, I don't know what I'd do without this!"

"Pi-Pika Pika!"

May laughed again, "well, looks like I truly am not the only big eaters here on campus, thank goodness. Ugh… I really don't know what I myself would do if we weren't allowed to eat during class, I'd perish."

"I know right?!" I exclaimed, having swallowed the last chip. "Food and I are like BFFs, anytime when it's food time or in between I'll munch away at every last nibble I can get and do it with pleasure cause nothings gonna stop my appetite!"

"Agreed," May said, before adding. "Although… All my friends say if I keep going the way I am I'll end up fat and…"

I stole a look at her figure. "You sure May? You look pretty thin to me; I'd say you're pretty just the way you are."

May looked at me for a second and then turned away, I swear I saw her blush just before that. "Thank you Ash, that really does mean a lot to me."

"No problem at all," I smiled in return.

Ms. Fantina brought our first day lessons to an end 10 minutes before class ended, and told us to mingle among each other. May quickly ran off, saying she wanted to introduce me to a friend of hers, she gave me a large cookie to snack off of with Pikachu while we waited. I was just finishing off the last bit of the cookie before May came skipping back a minute later with her friend in tow. Another girl…

This girl had dark blue hair that extended past her shoulders, some strands of hair near her eyes held by yellow barrettes, a white beanie with a pink Pokemon symbol on it. A pink scarf around her neck, she also had black top which looked like a tank with at her chest area showing she was wearing a white shirt or tank top underneath it complete with a short pink skirt. Her high pink boots matched that pink skirt and complete with black socks that barely reached her knees.

"Ash, this is Dawn," May explained, a hand on Dawn's shoulder. "She's a good friend of mine and also an aspiring coordinator."

"Hi there," Dawn said with a wave. "May certainly hyped you up for sure! So, you're Ash huh?"

"That'd be me," I said before directing her attention to my shoulder, "and this here is my partner Pikachu."

"And _my_ partner here is Piplup," Dawn said as I noticed in her arms was the small blue penguin Pokemon who upon mention seemed to put its arms on its hips in a confident manner.

" 'Lup!"

"…We don't always get along exactly," Dawn continued. "But we're partners together forever!"

"Now that's the spirit," I said, giving her a thumbs up. "Me and Pikachu didn't get along either when we first met as well, but now we're inseparable."

Dawn smiled brightly at this, "Y'know Ash you have the makings of a great Pokemon trainer, sweet, sincere, good hearted… I hope our paths cross more often outside this class Ash."

I swear the way she talked it was entirely in a flirtatious tone… Dawn's a girly girl, that's for sure. I took the moment to glance at the room's clock and saw it was nearly time to leave, my second class being history, that'll be _fun_. I walked as slow as I could towards it, Ms. Erika as always flash a soft sympathetic glance at me as I sat miserably down. The bell rang; she introduced herself and handed out the class syllabus… Ugh. Never mind, we'll just skip this part over.

As soon as class was over I dashed to battle class, Drew takes Battle class same time as me but in a different class with Ms. Cynthia, undoubtedly the best battler out of all the teachers, but Mr. Lance is only head of the Battling department because of his seniority and is much more serious than Ms. Cynthia who's a little more laid back for sure. Despite that, she's still a respectable (and almost fear-inducing) opponent to go up against if you're that unlucky. In this class, I saw Gary, Paul and Barry, alongside Misty and… The pig tailed girl from coordinating, eh whatever.

Battle class is the type of class that I want to not end so fast, but because it's the first day we only have it for forty minutes. I ended up sparring against Paul as Mr. Lance put us immediately into so battle skills polishing, as ever I lost, I swear however that ever since 8th grade I've been developing a way to someday beat him. I promise myself that.

One more class before lunch, just one more, and that class is English class. Look, I speak the language and can write decently, my writings legible but ugh they insist that this class is a standard one! Anyway this class is straight up a snooze fest, Ms. Shauntal, I bet you have good intentions here but you're so incredibly boring, I'm sorry.

Of note the familiar faces here are Brock, Drew, Dawn and Paul. And when I got there I ended up between Dawn and Drew, oh the acronym irony. Dawn was pleased to see me and so was Piplup and… Hey! I was able to recognize irony with the seating…! Meh, let's get this day over with…!

LUNCH! Best part of the day without a doubt! I quickly stacked my plate with food and started to walk off. From the corner of my eye, I saw May doing the same thing I had done, stacking her plate sky high. I also bought Pikachu some good Pokémon food. Sure, this amount of food costed quite a bit, but I'm sure I could find a way to stretch the money, I hope.

I hurriedly sat with my group of friends, but I swear I felt eyes staring into the back of my head. May, Dawn, and Misty all sat at a table together, just staring at me. It felt really awkward, so I quickly devoured my food and wandered out to the school's front yard. At lunch, we were allowed to go outside if we wanted.

Not many people were out here yet, so it was pretty peaceful. The only person I even recognized was Gary's girlfriend, Leaf. He'd been dating her since we were freshmen and he seemed really into her. She was pretty and all, long brown hair, wore pretty clothes, usually pretty friendly, but in a way, she was kind of weird. She was known for telling people's fortunes at lunch, under the big oak tree outside the school. Now that I think about it, Misty was angry at Leaf. I wonder if she had Leaf read her fortune and maybe she didn't get the results she wanted.

Today as I thought this I became curious as to how accurate her fortunes were, so I decided to approach her. She was leaned casually against the tree, humming to her Bulbasaur, who was curled up on her lap. She smiled and waved as I approached.

"Here to hear your fortune?" she asked.

I sat down in the damp grass and nodded my head. "So...how does this work?"

"Give me your hands," she instructed, holding out both of her hands for me to grasp. I did so. Leaf then closed her eyes, and she started mouthing words to herself. I couldn't make out what she was saying. Finally, her eyes shot open and she let go of my hands.

She smiled mischievously. "Ooh! This is going to be an interesting school year for you...!"

"What do you mean?" I questioned.

She giggled. "You are going to meet five beautiful and unique girls, maybe even up to seven. Each of them will fall in love with you. In the end, one of them will become your girlfriend. Though, telling you which one would spoil the fun. You've already met three of them. The fourth will appear to you just after you leave me. A fifth in your next class. The sixth you will meet in the halls some point later on, you'll meet the other one 'formerly' soon enough. For today, they'll keep their distance a bit, but tomorrow, they'll begin competing for your attention."

"That all seems a bit too planned out," I responded suspiciously.

"That's the wonder of my fortune-telling. It's exact and _always_ accurate. That's why lots of people always come to seek my guidance. One time I even read my own fortune. I was going to smash into a guy and immediately hate him. But over a month we got to know each other, I'd start to fall in love with him. After two months of knowing each other, he'd confess to me and I'd no doubt say yes. It was all true. And now I have Gary."

"A gift like that seems too good to be true," I sighed, Pikachu nodded.

Leaf winked at me. "You'll see. Once you've met all seven girls and when tomorrow arrives, you can see for yourself whether my fortune was real or not. And trust me, it won't disappoint. In fact, you'll definitely keep coming back to have your fortune told. But remember, I can only reveal so much. The future is in your hands. And depending on your choices, the girl I think you're going to end up with might not end up being your girlfriend at all. It could very well change to be someone else. I'll never tell you who though. Have fun!"

I walked away, feeling very confused. "The rumors are true. Leaf is pretty weird..."

"Chu...Pika..."

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" someone screamed.

Suddenly, I found myself crushing Pikachu as someone crashed me, landing on my back. Someone had...just fallen from the sky?!

"PIKAA!"

"GET OFF PLEASE!" I yelled.

"Sorry!" the voice said, quickly jumping off. I got off of Pikachu and quickly apologized to him, then I faced our attacker. Another...girl, oh boy.

 _"_ _The fourth will appear to you just after you leave me."_ No way! Was Leaf's fortune really true?! Impossible!

"Sorry about that," the girl chuckled nervously. I just fell out of the tree I was climbing. But I'm glad you were there! Axew and I really would've been in trouble if you hadn't broken our fall!"

This girl had huge, poofy, purple hair fashioned in a weird style. An Axew poked its head out from the unruly hair. Her skin was a bit dark. She sported a kind of baggy, long sleeve, peach-colored shirt with pink cuffs and a collar. She also wore a pink skirt-like thing with a huge bow on its side. She wore white capris with yellow cuffs. She also wore pink and white shoes with yellow straps.

I sweat-dropped. "Uh...I guess it's good you didn't get hurt then."

She also sweat-dropped and started awkwardly laughing again. "Sorry again. My name is Iris. As you can see, I'm kind of wild. I really hate school and being indoors. I prefer to be outdoors, so I'm always tree-climbing at lunch time. The view is always amazing up there." She faced me and smiled. "Do you climb trees?"

"If there's as good a view as you say, then I'd like to climb up and see," I answered.

Her eyes seemed to twinkle. "Follow me. I'll show you the way up."

I climbed after her as she easily scaled the tree. I held on to the branches, listening to her as she told me which ones were sturdy and which ones I should avoid. Finally, we both sat together on a sturdy limb, both admiring the view.

From here, not only could you see the whole school yard, complete with gorgeous green grass and pretty flowers, but you could even see the small, spread apart houses of Pallet Town. She was right, what a view.

"Wow, this is great," I said. Pikachu just stared in awe along with Axew.

"Yeah. I'm glad I found this place," Iris laughed. "Although...the teachers don't exactly approve of students climbing trees, so we should get down soon before the campus supervisors show up."

"Right you are."

We both climbed back down, and as soon as Iris touched the ground, she took off in a run.

"I'm gonna burn off some energy!" she called out to me. "See you in Battle class and anything else we have together!"

That's right! I do recognize her face now. Barry took her on in Battle class. It was funny watching him lose to a girl. You'd think he and his Empoleon would be able to hold their ground against a cute, innocent Axew. He just sometimes doesn't have a firm grip on things, then again my Infernape back when it was a little Chimchar got beaten by his Roserade, a Pokemon with a type disadvantage so who am I to judge?

Since the bell was bound to ring soon, I started walking inside, I sighed, my fifth class is of all things… Math, who in hell likes math?! Maybe this Conway kid but not Ash Ketchum, that is for darn sure! The only stats I suppose I could ever care about is attack, defense, special attack, special defense and speed on my Pokemon. The way I see it, percentages don't matter in battle, it's the will of a trainer, utterly useless class!

The teacher of this class is Ms. Lorelei. Like Ms. Erika Ms. Lorelei can _also_ be a boring kind of character. When teaching she's straight to the point and sharp, but on her own she's very…Distant from the world. Not in a cruel way but like she's in a constant day dream.

In said class the few people I recognize is Gary, but once again I see that red haired curly pig tailed girl, she has to be the fifth. And because of my luck, I'm sitting next to her! Leaf, I'm scared of you from now on. And oh joy and she looks pleased to see me…

"Oh great," she scoffed. "As if I already have to deal with you in coordinating, battling class and now math class! Perfection…!"

I groaned, but decided to at least try to friendly. "Listen, since we have SO many classes in common would it hurt to get a little bit along?"

"Fine," but it was curt. "The name's Ursula. And unlike those two you meet in coordinating I can at least assure you that I am indeed the best coordinator out there," Ursula smirked confidently.

"But… How can one be so sure of their victory?" I reasoned. "Surely not every battle goes according to a plan?"

"Well…" Ursula now seemed more awkward. "Who cares? I just push to do so. Hmph!" And she turned away.

Oh dear what have I insinuated?

Math was as boring as ever and I was glad when it past. As I stood up I had to ask. "Hey, Ursula, what class do you have next?"

"Physical ed.," she responded. "Why do you ask?"

"Um…Well," Oh Arceus how do I say this?! "I have P. E. next as well…"

"Oh fantastic!" She groaned sarcastically. " _More_ school hours to burn with a loser like you, as well as with Dawn. I'll take the long way to the girls' locker room to avoid you."

Well… That went well, I guess for my fifth encounter

Sixth period, the last class of the day for most people, as I've said before, I still have cooking class after this. Now to explain our school's gym class. They say a trainer must be as strong as their Pokémon, which is why gym was a necessary course for every student. Not that I minded.

On my way there, walking through the hallway, I saw a girl trying to make her way through the crowd. She looked slightly familiar. I think I'd seen her in Pokémon history. Someone who came out of a classroom shoved her out of their way when she bumped into her, and she fell forward. I witnessed the whole thing, as she fell on her knees, one of her knees sliding onto a sharpened pencil on the floor. The lead entered her flesh and a bit of blood dripped from her knee. Ouch.

I quickly rushed over to her. "Are you okay?"

"Ouch," she whined. "That pencil cut open my knee..."

Her Fennekin barked worriedly. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my handkerchief. I tied it securely around her leg and smiled assuringly at her.

"There. That should do it. But maybe you should visit the school Nurse Joy so she can handle it properly..."

Her face went all red. "T-thank you. Um...what's your name?"

"I'm Ash," I answered. "Who are you?"

"S-Serena," she said, a faint smile appearing on her face. "Um...thank you again for helping me."

"No problem, " I responded. "Need some help getting to the nurse's office?"

"I'll be fine," she answered. "But could you help me up?"

"Sure thing," I answered, taking her hand and pulling her up. Guess I pulled a little too hard because I'd accidentally pulled her into my arms like a hug. She seemed even redder now, I could feel it.

"Sorry about that!" I said, letting go of her.

"It's fine," she assured me. "Hope to see you around again soon."

"Yeah," I said with a nod. "See you later!"

With that, I dashed off to gym.

All the girls I'd met over the course of the day were in gym class with me. Along with all my guy friends and Leaf. Even Serena was here after having been patched up by Nurse Joy. That's when I realized that so far, everything that Leaf had predicted had come true. It's a pretty creepy feeling. So if this much was true, that meant that all these girls were going to fall in love with me! How the hell was this going to work?!

Distracted by my thoughts throughout the whole gym period, it soon ended and my favorite class was finally here. Food, here I come!

Only two familiar faces in my entire cooking class. Brock, who began immediately flirting with the _many_ girls in this class. And Serena, the latest girl I'd encountered today. Our teacher, Mr. Cilan, told us to pair up and somehow, I was with Serena now.

We kind of cooked in silence, not really saying much to each other. It wasn't awkward though. it was fun to cook with her and she was _really_ good at it. She knew what to do before Mr. Cilan even said it and she added in her own ingredients (which he told us not to do). But she didn't even get in trouble for it since Mr. Cilan loved the flavor so much. We had made the best spaghetti out of anyone, and now Serena was putting them in plastic bowls for each of us to take home.

"You're pretty good at cooking," I said as she handed me my bowl.

"I like it. It's fun," she responded. "I also enjoy acting."

"I'm better at eating food than cooking it as I'm sure you could see."

She laughed and sweat-dropped, "I'm sure you'll get better with practice. Well, I've got to get home. Mom always makes me practice Ryhorn racing after school. Ugh. I hate it."

"Sorry," I chuckled. "See ya!"

"Bye!"

…And so ends my first day as a sophomore. Tomorrow was going to be a big day. Because I'd soon find out that Leaf was no liar. Her fortunes are 100% accurate.

 **A/N PLEASE GO TO MY PROFILE PAGE TO CAST YOUR VOTES ON WHICH SHIP SHOULD WIN AND WHICH SHOULD BE THE MOST TEASED. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.**


	2. Start of the Un-FORTUNE-ate Aftermath

_The Start of the Un-FORTUNE-ate Aftermath_

This morning I woke up a full half hour earlier than my alarm clock. That was thanks in part to a bad dream I was experiencing, where all these girls I had met all of sudden just went from being nice to becoming she-demons of sorts and grabbed me and were about to eat me when I finally woke up breathing heavily. Luckily it's only six thirty so not too bad.

After that I refused to go back to sleep so I left my bed cautiously so as to not wake up Pikachu and headed for my desk, with these girls now on my mind I had sort my thoughts out, and here's what I've got:

 _First Period – Coordinating_

 _Friends – May, Dawn, Ursula, and Drew_

 _Second Period – History_

 _Friends – Serena_

 _Third Period – Battle Class_

 _Friends – Gary, Paul, Iris, Barry, Ursula, and Misty_

 _Fourth Period - English_

 _Friends – Iris, Drew, Paul, Brock, Dawn_

 _Fifth Period – Math_

 _Friends – Gary, Ursula_

 _Sixth Period – P. E,_

 _Friends – Misty, May, Dawn, Iris, Ursula, Serena_

 _Seventh Period – Cooking_

 _Friends – Brock, Serena_

I noticed upon looking my schedule over that I shared three classes with Dawn, Iris, Ursula and Serena. Which was the highest amount of classes any of the girls could share the same class with me – unless they're obsessed to the point where they're adjusting their schedules just to spend time with me… Oh man that'd send Brock into a fit – wait a minute what am I talking about?! Not only that they all share gym class with me so if they were to ever duke it out over me in a class then gym class is most likely where they'll do so… ARCEUS IF YOU CAN HEAR ME I NEVER WANTED THIS HAREM. WHATEVER HAPPNENED TO BEING ALONE?! And didn't Leaf mention a seventh… Oh no…!

No, look back at the list. Out of all the girls only Serena shares two classes with me where none of the other girls are present, that would imply she'd have even more chances to try and win me over with… And one of them is cooking… Ooh. Then again, Ursula's the only one who has math class and if she's better than me she'll get some edge if she tutors me, but Serena could easily win my stomach, ugh what a pain this all is.

Not only that but I can only choose one of them to become my girlfriend, otherwise this feud will never end and worst of all I'll end up breaking some of those girls' hearts and I don't think that'll be something I can live with. Ugh, in the end I have to choose and it'll be my heart that'll choose the one. I heard an old saying that if you do what your heart says you can't go wrong, but the pressure is just so much knowing there'll be six or – Leaf said if I was lucky enough – four individual hearts I'll be breaking.

I had enough of thinking all of that and suddenly began to compile a list of pros and cons about each girl from what I've heard about them in passing.

 _Misty_

 _Pros:_

 _Able to take charge_

 _Fiery determination_

 _Is a tomboy, so I won't have to worry about any girly stuff_

 _Cons:_

 _That temper_

 _I've heard she's beaten people up before_

 _A girl has to be a little girly_

 _May_

 _Pros:_

 _Gives me food and is a food lover herself, so we're alike_

 _Seems to be a good mixture between a tomboy and girly girl_

 _Our overall personalities just seem similar_

 _Cons:_

 _People say she likes to shop a lot_

 _People say she can be over-dramatic and sometimes a crybaby when things go south_

 _Apparently is a clumsy airhead?_

 _Dawn_

 _Pros:_

 _She has a good sense of fashion and looks pretty (Wow, I feel shallow)_

 _Good energy and spirit and drive (like me)_

 _Naturally cheerful and likes to tease and flirt (That's shallow of me)_

 _Cons:_

 _Said to sometimes have a temper, but only if you really get her angry, never tease her about her part so it's said_

 _Can get as girly as it can get_

 _Apparently known to get easily jealous_

 _Ursula:_

 _Pros:_

 _Hates math like I do_

 _Fair determination and drive_

 _She's pretty (I am so shallow)_

 _Cons:_

 _Has a mean streak_

 _Takes losses real hard_

 _Big jerk to Dawn_

 _She's girly_

 _Iris_

 _Pros:_

 _Knows how to have fun_

 _Brave_

 _Good determination_

 _Cons:_

 _People say she can be annoying_

 _Not very mature_

 _She's known to criticize_

 _Serena_

 _Pros:_

 _An AMAZING cook, a good baker as well I've heard_

 _Also cheerful and nice and just pleasant to be near_

 _Like Dawn, very pretty (I yet again feel so shallow)_

 _Cons:_

 _Also said to be really girly_

 _It's been said that she can be clingy_

 _Sometimes known to complain about things she dislikes real heavily_

This list as soon as I looked it over nagged me so hard, how can I judge these girls based simply on a pro and con list. These girls are all special in their own ways good and bad. So I tore up those notes and threw them away. By now it was seven in the morning so I woke up Pikachu, got washed up and took care of nature and went to go eat breakfast.

When me and Pikachu finished filling our stomach's we began to head out. I wanted to get to school early for once so I could hopefully run into Leaf seeing as she usually was early to school than most of us. But as I hurried along, a girl's voice sounded behind me. "Uh oh…"

"Pi-Pika…"

"Out of the way! Out of the way!" There running clumsily into view was yet _another_ girl. She had blond hair that was brighter than Serena's, but like Dawn two strands either side of her head were sectioned, most notably the strands behind the ones close to her eyes, they curved upward, weird, a light green beret with white lining covered said hair. She sported some orange top that formed a 'V' shape of empty space that under her neck, he orange top covered a white dress with short sleeves.

Anyways these details I took better note of later, cause she tripped on a stone and rammed right into me, send me into some sprinklers.

"Ahh! I- pff!" I opened my eyes and realized I wasn't actually drowning and stood up, soaked. Pikachu had jumped clear before she made contact so he was okay. The girl was on her knee's breathing heavily, why the heck was she running anyways? I was about to offer my hand to help her up, but she stood up easily.

"Oh dear! I am so-SO sorry" she gushed, bowing hear head multiple times. "Are you okay mister?"

"Um… Yes, don't worry about it, just a little wet, nothing that can't be dried up by itself," I replied. "Why are you in such a rush?"

"Rush? What are you talking about?" She asked, as if she had been running for no reason. "I- OH! Sorry, have to get to school, I promised a teacher I'd help her set up for today. Bye-ee!" And she took off running, I was stunned.

"Oh!" She called, looking back. "The name's Bianca!"

"Ash!" I called back, she gave a nod of acknowledgement and continued off in a cloud of dust. "Um… That was odd wouldn't you say Pikachu?"

"Pika…"

I wandered the halls for a bit trying to look out for Leaf, as I turned a corner however, there near the end was my target, and so to was a familiar angry ginger… Man, she looks pissed.

"Your stupid 'fortunes' are always screwing me over Leaf!" Misty shouted. "It's like you're purposefully saying these things are going to happen because you _want_ them to happen!"

Leaf looked perfectly calm as she dealt with her. "I have no influence over the future, I can only see what will happen. It is only you who can manipulate if what I see will happen or not, besides, what if these bad things lead to something good eventually?"

"Oh?! And what is ever so good about having verbal fights with my sisters, people egging our gym, salinity issues in our tanks and getting a paint bucket poured onto me!?"

"Perhaps Misty that's nothing more than karma," Leaf said plainly, holding her hands up. "Keep in mind you were mean to a lot of people over the summer. Maybe this is all a sign to change your ways."

Misty looked ready to snap but calmed down. "Well, things weren't so bad this week. One of those fortunes you relayed to me did come true, I did meet the boy of my teenage dreams. But why can you not tell me if it works out or not?! Please Leaf, he's _perfect!_ "

"No can do," Leaf said immediately. "That's for me to know, and you to find out. You simply have to do your best to win his affections for you. 'Cause, you're not the only one…"

"You have to be joking with me you meanie!" Misty whined and turned where we made eye contact; she winked at me and waved at the same time. Curses she's making me feel all red now…

I waltzed awkwardly up to Leaf, unsure of what to say. But Leaf gave me a kind of sadistic, all knowing smile, spine chilling… "If you're here to ask me which girl you're getting, then I'm still not telling."

"Damn it."

"But assuming off of that look I'm guessing you have several other questions am I right?"

I sighed, "Tell me, in this harem is there a second blondie in it who goes by the name Bianca?"

"Why yes, met her?"

"Ran literally into me, explains why my jacket's still a little wet. Anyways you said that today they'll be trying to get my attention. Um, how bad is the competition going to get?"

Leaf laughed hysterically but not maniacally. "Throughout all of it there'll be a lot of good and bad moments for you. Some of these girls will be more jealous or aggressive about you than others. It's bound to be a rad emotional roller coaster. But alas, such is the price you pay when you're loved by so many girls."

"But I didn't even ask for any of this…"

"Ash, listen to me," Leaf replied. "Everything, _everything_ happens for specific reasons. And in the end you may come out of it all a better person as well as learn more about yourself. Besides, in the end isn't there a great prize in the end? A beautiful girl to call your own?"

"Okay, your wording there makes me out like a creep but point taken. I guess yeah it's alright, to get a girlfriend right?" Pikachu gave me a sympathetic look.

"See? Now, you best go and start to know these girls yourself if you want a better idea of what they're like. Now, go and mingle why don't you?"

"In terms of this fortune of mine you seem way smarter than what a normal teenage girl should know about romance," I said warily. "Not saying girls are dumb at all, but you give me this strange vibe like this a play you wrote out but won't tell anyone about it as it replicates itself in real life."

Leaf merely smiled at this and started walking away, "Bye Ash, I'll tell Gary you said hi…"

"Um… Thanks? I suppose…"

I made it to coordinating before anyone else got there, luckily May too was early so we shared snacks together. I was the one who brought them today, as a thank you for the chips and cookie from yesterday. The chocolate pretzels I brought disappeared quickly, well, no thanks to me in fairness.

There was one left, we both reached into the bag, our hands touched, May was red alright, also with fury though. "I-I… I touched it first!"

"We reached for it at the same time," I argued. "And besides, aren't they _my_ pretzels?!"

"But you intended to give them to me as a thanks," she retorted.

"Ugh, fine, it is just one pretzel," I conceded.

May pumped a fist victoriously and chewed that pretzel up, she… Almost looked cute doing it, and her smile of content left me all red, greeeaaaat….

"Anyways," May began, licking her chocolate covered fingers up, "tomorrow _I'll_ bring snacks."

"What is this?" I chuckled, "a back n' forth thing?"

"Exactly," she said with a wink, it was then Dawn came over, she waved to me and May before leaning on our table in my direction.

"Hey, how are you today Ash?"

"Great so far, any day where I can eat is a good day for me."

Dawn eyed me up a little then, "So, I'm guessing the way to your heart is through your stomach themn?"

Woah, talk about subtle Dawn! "Um, sure… I guess you're right," I said awkwardly.

"Too bad I'm only good at poffin's though," Dawn admitted, sweat dropping, "my Pokemon certainly enjoy it though. But it's not a treat for humans."

"Oh! Oh!" cried May excitedly, "I know! I'll speak to my counselor about joining a cooking class for seventh period! Want to join me Dawn?"

Dawn shook her head, "I'd love to, but I really need that study hall time, besides, I have my job at the maid café to worry about."

"You… work at a _maid_ café?" I choked. Jeez, the thought of Dawn in a maid's outfits making me blush.

"Yup!" Dawn chirped. "It's always really fun to dress up, you should drop by some time. They just built one here in Pallet, a block or two away from the school. No way you could miss it. If you come to visit me I'll even give you a special discount for becoming my friend."

Something in her voice already tells me she wants to be more than my friend. Leaf was definitely right. Oh Arceus. "Thanks, Dawn. I promise I'll drop by some time then."

"Can't wait," she said, winking playfully.

"Ugh," I groaned as I sat down in my history class. I looked around in boredom and caught sight of Serena. She stared back at me and smiled.

Then, she started walking over and she sat down in the seat next to me since the guy who sits with me wasn't here yet. "Hiya!"

"Hey," I greeted half-heartedly.

"By the look on your face, it seems to me like you don't enjoy this class all that much."

I snorted. "I don't understand why we have to learn about a bunch of dead stuff."

Serena shivered. "It's all kind of creepy to me. Ms. Erika just says we need to learn about the past so we don't make the same mistakes, but I don't think I'll ever find myself starting a great Pokemon War or

anything like that..."

I nodded. "Plus, the way she teaches it all is just boring. I like Ms. Erika and all, but...this class...ugh..."

"I know what you mean. But I think I dislike gym even more. I don't like running and I'm not very fast either. I'm not all that athletic, period. I always hate our warm up session, running laps for ten minutes. Because I'm so slow, no one runs with me and it makes me feel so lonely. I wish I could join that brunette and bluenette who are usually walking, but they seem like such close friends and I'm a little worried we won't get along."

"Do you mean May and Dawn?" I asked, she nodded. "You have no need to worry. They're really nice. Especially May. I'm sure they'd love having you to talk to. Your personalities would probably match pretty well, so you should go talk to them. And maybe I could join the group too. I'll run when there's someplace I want to go honestly, but otherwise I'd probably just walk."

Serena giggle, it was kind of adorable. "Thank you, Ash. I feel a bit less alone now. Well, class is almost starting, so I should get to my seat, but it was really nice talking to you. See you in cooking class!"

And with that, she skipped off to her seat. I sighed, automatically bored again now that there was no one to talk to. This would be a long class period…

Because today's Thurday we have lunch right after second period so food here I come! I, as usual get another huge plate of food for myself and a big bowl of Pokémon food for Pikachu. Another huge wad of money to pay for said food. And then...all of the sudden...five girls come along and try to drag you to their tables and you desperately try to get away from them, before finally suggesting all six of you sit together at one table, to which they reluctantly agree. Man, was a turnaround.

All five girls smiled at me. The girls were getting along so far, and all seemed like it would go well. That is - until Misty spoke up.

"So...all of you are Ash's friends?"

Each of them nodded and agreed and Misty nodded back. "Well...how did you meet him?"

"I was introduced to him second period," May answered. "We sit next to each other."

Dawn nodded. "I also met him second period when May introduced us."

"I met him during lunch," Iris piped up.

"And I met him in the hall before sixth period," Serena said.

"Oh," Misty chuckled. "So that means that _I saw him first_. Because we crashed into each other before the first class of this school year could begin."

"So?" Dawn spat at her.

"So," Misty responded. "I was his friend first, so he should be sitting at _my_ table."

"Here we go," I sighed.

"Pika..."

Arguments broke out between the girls and I carefully slipped away, rushing out into the school yard in search of Leaf. She smiled as I desperately ran to her.

"Those girls are crazy!" I hissed. "They're at each other's throats! I wouldn't be surprised if I found some of them dead when I get back there, and of all things I had to leave my precious food behind!"

"I'm sorry?" Leaf replied. "I...can't really help you with that little situation. But I can answer any questions about your future you might have."

I sat down in the grass in front of her. "What do I have to do to calm them all down so that they can be friends? How's that?"

Leaf held out her hands and I placed mine in them. She closed her eyes and went through with her seeing-into-the-future process. She opened her eyes and snickered. "You aren't going to be able to attract their attention unless you do something stupid..."

"Like what?" I asked nervously.

"You could twerk," she suggested.

"You're kidding me," I snarled.

"Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle."

"I hate you right now y'know?"


	3. Getting Even More Stranger!

_Getting Even More Stranger_

"Fine, I'll try… something," I conceded. "Anything to get those girls to calm down. But I ain't twerking got it?!"

Leaf shrugged at this, "whatever you say, as long as it's dumb."

I walked back into the cafeteria trying to think of a way to get all those girls to calm down – see I hadn't exactly made a concrete plan, whoops – and when the table came into view, Misty and Serena both looked as if they were having a headache whereas Dawn, May and Iris were still shouting at each other.

But as I was about to yell at them to grab their attention, it happened.

"Oh hey Ash!" it was Barry, oh no. "Where have you been? All of us guys have been waiting for you."

"Um, Barry, uh listen, I can explain."

"You better Ketchum otherwise I will fine you! Do you realize how much I was wondering about your whereabouts?!" At the mention of my name that grabbed the girls' attention, Barry unfortunately had noticed this.

"Wait a minute Ash are you trying to get away or something?!" Misty called.

"Hey I wanted to talk…" groaned Dawn. Oh that's great, _now_ they noticed I was gone.

"Ash?! What is going on here? You floozy, you've been getting all comfortable with these ladies haven't you?!"

"Barry listen," I stepped forward to try and calm him down but Barry pushed me away, my feet lost their balance and one of my feet ended up on a banana peel that Barry had been throwing out but dropped to the floor, he would too – anyways I slipped on said peel and landed on my head which caused Pikachu to thunderbolt me as my back landed on him, oh the humility…

"Agh…!" I cried as a yellow glow engulfed me, at last it stopped, but I looked a mess, swirls in my eyes and letting off steam like a boiling pot.

"Hah! Looks like Pikachu did the fining for me!" and Barry proceeded to do some kind of victory dance, I heard then a sort of giggling. I looked up and all the girls were laughing!

"That Pikachu," Dawn tittered, "really knows how to shock you doesn't he?"

"What was that?" May choked, "some kind of step up routine?"

"Encore!" proclaimed Iris. I reckon the whole cafeteria must be staring at me, how embarrassing…

"Nah ladies, just Ash here getting beaten by a Pokemon master prodigy," Barry boasted, I was too stunned to fight back.

"Nice lady friends you have here Ash."

"Just help me up damn it Barry…"

"Pika Pika…"

Barry took me to see Nurse Joy and she made sure me and Pikachu were alright, luckily we were, then again I really never been seriously injured by a surprise electric attack in the past.

That made me late to Battle Class, luckily I didn't miss too much so I could still have two battles today. I got to battle Barry – to which he said his win would go towards my fine for abandoning the guys during lunch. Listen here Barry, it's not my fault got it?! Anyways it was unfortunately for Barry his Hitmonlee still lost against my Palpitoad when we did get to our battle following a verbal banter.

It was an awesome battle, Barry certainly showed that when it comes to his training he's still got it since Hitmonlee kept pummeling Palpitoad with Mega Kick and Close Combat, but a combo of Mud Bomb and Hydro Pump eventually got me to win.

I wanted to battle Paul next, but then…

"Hiya…!" I felt a tinge up my spine as I heard the melodic greeting, it was _familiar_. "Hi! Excuse me, uh… Ash right?" Yep, it was her from this morning alright.

"Hey," I said, "Bianca right?"

"Eee! Yes, that's me, hey, this is battle class can we battle next please…!?"

"Alright then, but I won't be an easy opponent to beat," I replied, I doubt I've ever seen Bianca battle before, this'll be interesting.

We're standing either side of a battle field, I'm fiddling with my cap, man what does she have?! Bianca was busy shuffling through her bag when at last she produced a Pokeball, she then… Winked at me?!

"Alright Ash let's have some fun! Go, Pignite!" Her Pignite stood up on the field and let off a snort of fire.

"Pignite!"

"Let's go Pikachu! I choose you!"

It was actually an exciting battle, Bianca started off strong with a Take Down and followed with Heat Crash, Pikachu actually got slammed hard but he still got up. Bianca then tried to end it with a Flame Charge but Pikachu's Volt Tackle was just stronger.

"Woah Ash you really are strong," she conceded.

"Thanks," I began, "you were pretty strong yourself I-"

"I wonder if you're strong if any other regards," she said thoughtfully, that caught me off guard, I began to sweat nervously, did she say 'strong in another regards?'!

"Wait, Bianca… What do you mean by that…?" I am really fearing her answer right now, I'M TOO YOUNG ARCEUS FOR THAT! Please no…

"I mean your muscles silly," she giggled, as if I had completely missed the point. Whew, at least she didn't mean _that_ kind of strong. At this realization I couldn't help but smile with relief, but in the back of my mind… I swore I could feel two pairs of eyes, one originating from a ginger haired girl, and a pair from a purple one… I felt a hand on my shoulder, oh no. I turned around to coming face to face with Misty.

"Whatcha doing Ash?" she asked, in a way that wasn't threatening yet was at the same time!

"Um… Congratulating Bianca on a great battle?"

"I see," Misty's eyes narrowed as she said that. "Say, _we_ should battle next time, and no rain checks got it?! You're going to battle me and like it!"

"Y-yes ma'am!" I shuddered. "I agree to battle you 100% next class!" Boy… Misty can be really persuasive when she wants to be.

"Good, that's settled," she smiled. I tell you her tone just shifted from icy to sweet! Somehow that's not a good sign. She then helped me up and soon Mr. Lance began to call off any ongoing battles…

I'm in fourth class now, aka boring old English with Ms. Shauntal, and grammar like no one ever could… Ugh, I hate even the thought of walking there. I'd like to say walking to her class right now was boring but Iris is currently following me to class like a hawk!

"Apple, Ash?" Good grief she's fast! I close my eyes for like half a second and what was originally a distance of four yards between us closed quickly!

"Thanks, I guess I am pretty hungry," I said, rubbing the back of my head in embarrassment since my stomach did grumble I suppose. I took the apple and began munching on it, it was pretty sweet and ripe, can't let this go to waste right?

"Battling that airhead Bianca must've made you tired huh?" she continued. "Say, need a back massage kid?"

Kid… Ah great… Wait - back massage? Things in this harem are just getting weirder and weirder! Did Leaf see any of this? Is this her idea of 'good moments'?! Cause I'm not sure myself about all of this… "Um, sure… I am a little tense Iris. That'd be great."

"Excellent," Iris said. Y'know, I heard Iris is like some kind of Dragon Warrior or something similar to that extent, but the 'massage' she gave was like some kind of beat up! She was shoving her elbows into my spine and pushing her fists into various points, in the end in actually did make me feel better, but also left me shaking…Love really hurts.

We walked into class, Iris seemed keen to sit next to me, but Ms. Shauntal stopped her, "Sorry Iris, um, can I ask that you sit over there?" Ms. Shauntal pointed towards the table in the middle of the three rows.

"Not a problem Ms. Shauntal," Iris said, eyes twitching and her face was… Awkward? Strained… I can't tell honestly. Ms. Shauntal looked satisfied and returned to her desk. Iris looked disappointed at this, but then turned back to me and started grumbling about the command. "Y'know," she whispered, "I have a feeling she's only doing that so one – she can keep an eye on me. And two – to keep me from escaping class."

"Sorry you have to deal with that stuff," I replied in sympathy. We parted ways and I went to go sit near the wall opposite the windows. "Ugh, English sucks," I muttered. Then, a certain perky blue haired girl hopped into the frame.

"Hiya Ash!" she chirped, sitting down next to me, and instantly leaned in to my face?! This blue haired girl was so close I could feel the heat from her body on mine; I guess my assumption about the tone of her voice implying she saw me as more than a friend from this morning did prove true. Anyways I figure this'll be a norm with having a harem so I quickly calmed down, I mean come on, she is just being friendly right?

"Hi Pikachu," Dawn went on, "are you hungry sweetie?"

Oh crumbs! During that cat fight while lunch was happening I forgot like me that Pikachu hadn't eaten all of his food. "Pi-Pika!" he said, I knew he was saying yes.

"Pikachu," I muttered sadly, "I'm sorry buddy, guess with everything going on I kind of forgot about food y'know?" I said, rubbing my head.

"No need to worry," Dawn said. "Things did get a little out of control during lunch, guess my Mom is right about my jealousy issues, haha!" I couldn't help smirking at that remark and laughed a little with her. I think out of the corner of my eyes I saw her blush with contentment.

"Anyways here you go Pikachu," she held out some poffins in her hand and gave them to him to which he chaed happily. She then called her Piplup out and fed it its share of poffins, to which Piplup looked very happy at this. Then Ms. Shauntal walked to the front of the room and class began…

English class like I said is a snooze fest. All Ms. Shauntal did was assign a reading to us for a few chapters to do over the weekend and went into talking about plots and stuff. Ugh, what'd I'd do to be at home right now. Class would've been as boring as it was yesterday, but at times Dawn every now and then tried leaning in towards me, I decided to let it happen, but each time Ms. Shauntal would look in her direction and Dawn would straighten up.

All the while I'm just growing even more bored than ever, I… I think I'm dozing off. I fell into a state in my hand, I'm losing track of time, whatever…

"Ash… Um… Ash, Ash?," came a whisper. I opened my eyes, but instead of feeling the abrasiveness of my gloves, I was on Dawn's bare left shoulder! Breathing onto it too! What the heck I need to get off as calmly as I could but man, I'm blushing right now, dude, how did I fall asleep on a girls shoulder so easily?! I quickly removed myself and straightened out, sweat dropping.

It took me a moment to realize that luckily Ms. Shauntal had stopped lecturing and instead was handing out papers. It was five minutes till the end of class, and by extension end of the school day.

Going back to my current predicament, Dawn was looking at me with a weird look in her eyes, she also blushing, not that I was surprised considering what I was doing. It was a bit of a surprised look that also made it clear Dawn hadn't minded it either. "Heh heh… Sorry about that Dawn, I guess this class just really puts me into a daze you know?" I said, trying to chuckle it off.

"Um… That's alright," Dawn said softly, "I suppose it was better than letting your head fall onto the table."

"Wait, did you put my head on your shoulders?" Okay, I was not expecting that!

"Not really, I saw your hand giving way and I moved a little to catch you," she said, the redness coming back, man why is that just the teensiest bit attractive? "But you were like that for at least five minutes so I needed to wake you up. But no need to worry! It's fine, really!" she said, recovering from her previous state, now she's back to being her spritely self again.

I smiled, glad to have that awkward moment past, but then I heard a light chuckle as Ms. Shauntal excused us to leave and the other kids began packing up.

I looked around and saw behind me, Drew! Oh great, he must've seen it all happen didn't he? Dawn skipped away, but Drew walked up to me till we drew side to side. "Well Ash," he snickered. "So what Barry did say was true. Getting to be a ladies man huh? Strange considering you talked to zero last year, minus the teachers of course."

I groaned, I suppose I ought to explain how this all started. So I told him about Leaf and the fortune and the events after as quickly as a crash course in something could get. By the end we were outside the school campus and he was nodding.

"So… Those rumors about Leaf's fortune telling skills _are_ true," he said. "Well Ash my man, if you need dating advice…." I growled at him, who asked him anyways?! "You know where to find me," and with that Drew put his hands in his pockets and walked away into the shaking tree's dancing in the wind. Ugh, now I have him on my case with this harem. All I want to do now is go home and start on tomorrow's homework, or what little I have…

But as I began to head home, I head a crunch of some twigs I avoided being stepped on… I whipped around to find Serena looking shocked and nervous now that I was looking at her dead on.

"Oh hey!" I called in my friendliest way. No need to be awkward about this… Right? "What brings you here following me?" I went on.

Serena's expression softened and she reached behind her into her skirt pocket and produced a bag and held it out to me. "These are for you," she said. "I made these this morning for some friends and thought you may like some. Never had the chance to give them to you till now," she admitted.

I took the bag and opened it, wondering what was inside, I pulled out what looked like a Nilla cookie, but it was different seeing as it seemed homemade. She smiled at me, hinting I should try it. Well, I am hungry, here goes…

It was so good! Sure, May's cookies taste nice but these are great! I reached in and began eating more, Serena, satisfied that I liked it said her goodbyes and said she had to get home.

I too began to walk home, I could help but think, Leaf _was_ right, there are some good things to all of this, good looking girls and free food. But the competing… Oh man, this is going to be a long road…

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: To note I first of all did obtain permission from IchigoHatake to use her original concept over on Wattpad (you can check there to see how I actually wanted to format this story, same title n' everything). Secondly if haven't make sure you visit my profile page to cast votes. IF you can't see them please let me know. I'll _try_ to leave them here as well as they're Strawpoll links so I suppose you could also just paste the numbers in :P :  
**

The winner: .me/12641059

Most teased (not the winner but gentle teasing of potential): .me/12641116


	4. Friday Madness

_Friday Madness_

... So I got home, ate the rest of Serena's delicious cookies, they tasted great! After that I went through the usual routine, Mom got some bills in the mail in regards to the family inn, but I guess she'll take care of them when she gets back. Me and Pikachu had some more snacks from our pantry as usual, and then loafed around. Then, it _really_ hit me as I laid on the couch.

"Hey Pikachu," I began. "Leaf foretold that the competition would get tough..."

"Pika..." he sighed, rolling over onto his back in thought.

"And... Considering the way they were acting during lunch today when Misty began the argument... Well, who knows what'll happen in P. E. tomorrow?! It'll be chaos!"

"Pi-Pika!"

"Agh! Why me, why me?!" I cried, running my un-gloved hands in fury through my hair. I am just so... Bewildered by it all, whatever, I'll just lay on it, I can't help but groan at this prospect, so I just stared at the ceiling till I became bothered to prepare my one binder for math and to get dinner prepared.

That evening however as I looked through the fridge and pantry I became aware of how much material we actually still have. "Oh man...! We're nearly out meat and Pokemon food!"

"Pi-Pika?!"

I looked at our budget for the month. "Nuts, we're gonna have to... Ugh, _cut back_ I suppose on some of our meals buddy, if anything just to have enough money for everything else. D-don't worry, I'll be fine, I have the girls for free food, right?"

Man I sound like an optimist, but who knows if they'll actually help us?

* * *

The next day I begrudgingly did my routine and had to eat just an apple for breakfast 'cause apparently we're also low on cereal! And I hate shopping… And my stomach won't stop grumbling too…

We got to school with some time to spare and I decided to pay the cafeteria just a quick little peek before math could begin. I reached the corner where us students normally would enter but just as I was turning towards the aisles of delicious pastries and…-?!

"Ahhhh!" I cried, what the heck?! Something fast just ran into me, and I ended up landing in a small puddle of water, must've been the result of some incident with the water fountain I no doubt want to know about. But wait who hit me?!

"Sorry, sorry! I am _so_ sorry!" Oh, it's her… Bianca. "Oh hello there Ash, didn't realize it was you for a moment," she said, taking in a moment to realize what she did.

"Urgh… Good to see you too Bianca…" I groaned as I stood up, Pikachu this time had not been so fortunate and had landed in the puddle beside me – speaking of which how is she always knocking me into puddles?! Surely coincidence right?

"Anyways Ash dear," she bubbled on, winking. Darn it she's cute doing it too… "I need to be going, class for me is on the other side of the campus so bye-ee!"

And with that, just as soon and she showed she disappeared once again. "Boy Pikachu," I said, as I wiped the excess water off of him. "That Bianca knows how to leave a mess that's for sure."

"Pi-Pika…" he grumbled. " _Ah well_ " I thought, let's just grab some eats and get going to… Math.

* * *

"Alright, you have your Pokeblock's, and I have my lemon cakes. Let's go!" I said, we had finished paying for the food and now had to get to class. We arrived and went to sit at our desk and... Oh yeah, Ursula sits with us, of course. Well I suppose it wouldn't hurt to at least be nice to her right?

"Morning," I said as I sat across from her, our teacher Ms. Lorelei has us sit in groups of four; our other group mates are Conway – perfection... Ugh. – and some other girl I don't know the name of, she was real quiet last time so I don't know.

"Morning," Ursula replied, eying us out of the corner of her eyes. We still had a few minutes till class officially got underway so I took the packs of Pokeblock and lemon cake I had bought and layed it out for Pikachu, to which he gladly began devouring down. I then began munching on the lemon cakes, man they're good! Sure, the sugar's not good for my teeth but...

"Must you two be so noisy?" Ursula quickly snapped.

"What?" I mumbled, my mouth full of food, wow that sounds attractive. "We're hungry, both me and him."

"Pikachu, Pik!" he grumbled back.

"You got that right buddy," I gulped, swallowing down the last crumbs. "Anyways Ursula surely your I would enjoy a morning snack too right?"

Ursula frowned at first, but then breathed a sigh. "Well, I suppose one of my Pokémon could use a snack."

She stood up and pulled out a Pokeball and released out a Gabite. "Ga... BITE!" It called upon exiting its Pokeball.

"Oh wow! I didn't know you had a Gabite!" I guzzled, standing up, wanting more than anything to pet it.

"Woah! Who said you could pet her?" Ursula retaliated, holding what I'm now guessing is her prized Pokémon.

"Sorry!" I said, reeling back. "It's just that I think it's so cool that you got a Gabite. See back at Professor Oak's lab is my Gible, and I think that's pretty cool that you and I have a member from the Gible evolutionary sets."

At this point whilst I was chatting away Conway decided to enter. "Heh heh, glad you took notice of Gible's evolutionary sets, Ash..."

"Gaah! When did you get here?!"

"Just now Ash, Ursula," he greeted. "Anyways, Gible's a rare Pokémon, you two should consider yourselves lucky to have such Pokémon as rare as them," his eyes then flashed behind those glasses of him as he chuckled. "I dare say, it might be fate for the both of you to have those Pokémon, a rather odd connection wouldn't you say?"

I was a bit confused by what Conway had to say, but when I looked at her Ursula's face suddenly went red as she processed what Conway had just said.

"I-I, well...! Um!" she stuttered, "t-that's just coincidence right?! Nothing to say there, I mean it's not like me and him having the same Pokémon could necessarily equate to us being a thing and...!" I guess she figured out what she was saying because she snapped her hands to her mouth. She then turned away and went back to feeding Gabite, while I was left bemused by what happened, with Pikachu merely groaning at what happened.

Y'know, she did kinda look cute with that that blush on her face, she went redder than that under blouse of hers which is like some pale red and... Oh what am I saying?!

* * *

Math class with Ms. Lorelei went as usual, and luckily we didn't have to do any group thingy-mc-boppers otherwise my creation of the already awkward tension would've gotten the best of things. Anyways time for P. E. class, time to get to some exercise in, and hopefully not a cat fight...

Today in that class was about as boring as usual, typical back and forth stuff from one end of the gym to another. But during all that, the girls, my harem ones I mean - why the heck am I even acknowledging that I have a harem, if this is a dream I need a psychiatrist... - were staring at me, why... Do I feel like they're trying to check me out...?

Our instructor Ms. Skyla had us test out our various abilities, like reaching our hands behind our back, hand reaches with one leg out, those sort of things, and we had to get partnered up, and with Ms. Skyla it didn't matter if you got paired with a guy or girl...

All my male friends got taken, and well, you know what happened. All seven girls from my harem came up to me, asked if I was free, realized they were all there, and now they're staring daggers at each other!

"Back off Misty!"

"No, you back off! I saw him first!"

"Puh-LEASE! I..."

"Come on! No fair!"

"Oh dear," I groaned. "Um, girls?"

"Yeah?!" they all shouted. Oh jeez I'm dying on the inside...

"Um... Hey, there are eight of us right? And there are like sixteen things we need to check off so why not we do it in rotation and you all get to work with me two times huh?" Please, PLEASE let that work Arceus… They're not that desperate for my attention are they...?

"Fine, what a kid though suggesting we work _together_ ," sighed Iris. All the other girls looked at each other and agreed to my suggestion. Though they all were looking at me out of the corners of their eyes, harem's are so tough to contend with... Pikachu just sighed and went off to be with my "servants' " Pokémon.

I guess there must've been a bit of a fight over working with me first, because eventually it was Misty who joined me first for pull ups, and being the guy I was, I said "ladies first, so it's you."

"Why thank you, glad to know somebody is aware of who's the fittest of the both of us," she scoffed.

"Is that a challenge?" I smirked back, she's pulling out all the stops I tell you.

"You bet I can out do you Ash! Just you watch," she said, ending it off with a wink, and gosh that smile of confidence (or is it arrogance I can't tell) speaks for itself. She walked up to the vertical pole in one of the corners of the gym, and hopped onto it. "One... Two... Three..." she grunted as I counted. In the end she did about nearly eleven pull ups, well, ten and a half really, she was tired out by past ten, and is currently on the floor panting from how much her arms are killing her at the moment.

"Woah, you know how to work yourself out," I smiled, placing a hand of sympathy and congratulations on her back. I guess you could say I was lucky she didn't take it the wrong way, because she stood up and told me it was my turn. Had I angered her with that touch, I could've been in for some pain...

I did twelve pull ups before I gave up, and man my arms _hurt_ now. Now, don't me wrong, I would have loved for this class to go without any difficulties but as I was checking my paper over Misty moved her hand over my paper and... We touched hands, I guess she was going for the pencil I had.

"Hey!" she shouted, her face as red as a beet's. "Just hand the stupid pencil over!"

"Well excuse me but I was writing things down!" I retaliated.

"Who cares?! Give it to me!"

"Ugh...! Fine, here," I groaned, handing _my_ pencil to her. And of all times one of the girls in our class, a purple haired baseball lover by the name of Casey was nearby and made this remark...

"Ha! I once heard from Nurse Joy that often you hurt the one you love!" she smiled cheekily, I had heard about her, always willing to pull a cheeky remark at any chance that one... Well, and you can guess Misty's reaction.

"Me and him?! Um, I..." she was glancing around nervously, fidgeting all the while, she then turned around, and based on the way her arm structure is looking she's holding onto the hand that I touched... I looked at my hand and went red myself, _I touched another girls' hand_ , wow, and it was warm too and her skin felt nice... CURSE THIS ALL ARCEUS, WHY DOES TOUCHING A FEMALE HAND HAVE TO FEEL SO NICE!?

After that awkward exchange, it was time for the second girl, who was... Iris, oh boy... "Hey," I greeted. "So, any particular exercise you want to practice on?"

"How I wish climbing tree's was one," she laughed, I chuckled at that; she's got a point too; tree climbing sounds much more fun. "The closest thing I could think of to climbing tree's would be pull up's but you already did that with Ms. Heated-Ginger... How about something simple like shoulder stretches?"

And so we did that, and for me, this is weird, with my left hand I can reach down my back and touch my other hand, but I can't say the same for my right side... I dare say with Iris' attempt it was pretty weird, that hair of hers is thick like a bush and it made trying to see if her hands were touching difficult! "Oh come on!" she groaned, "what a kid! Can't even tell if I'm doing it right..."

Why I oughta...! She's the one who wanted to do these! Whatever, she got them over with, and apparently, Iris is the perfect girl! She could do it – albeit with a little strain on her left – with both hands _too_ easily!

With her confidence stepped up she went to go join Ursula for the next round. My next partner was Bianca – who was not running at me for once. Good thing too, because coach had set up a water tank for use if we ever got thirsty and the fountains were occupied we could drink from there, and I swear if Bianca was running at me I'd end up with that whole tank all over me because it was behind where we were working...

"Hi-iii!" she squeaked. I was going to respond but she cut me off. "I know what we should do! Push upsss!"

I sweat-dropped, Bianca's got real enthusiasm. "Well alright then, ladies first," I motioned, sweat dropping all the while.

"...Am I doing this right?" she asked at last, I looked, she wasn't quite doing it right to be honest, she was on her knee's for one thing, but her arms were in the right place. She's more like doing those typical 'girl push ups' which coach is _discouraging_ us from doing.

"Well, ergh... Not quite," I said, I got down and demonstrated how to do one. "See? Just move your hips up and you'll have it right."

At this point a rather awkward look came across Bianca's face. "That's what she would say," she snickered. Wait... What? I'm dense, so I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that...

Bianca got as far as ten push-ups, but to hear her talk for her, this was like winning the Nobel Peace Prize. As for me, I got as far as fifteen, although... "Come on!" Bianca shouted as I reached fourteen, panting. "You can do so much more! Look at you with that buff bod of yours!"

"Bianca, please," I gasped, as I finish my fifteenth one. "Y-you're embarrassing me, and I'm... Tired, ugh..." I was feeling pained alright, no doubt.

We finished writing down our push-ups, Bianca bubbling about it the whole time about how normally she fell onto her chest every time she use to attempt push-ups till now, she's got a lot of things to talk about lemme tell you. Who's next dare I ask...? And it's Dawn.

"Hi there!" she greeted, holding a hand out to greet me, I decided to indulge her and gave her a high-five. "Awesome, since you were just bossed around by those three, how about you suggest what we do next?"

"Oh wow, thanks. Um... How about this 'back-saver sit and reach'?" If anything, it'll be easier on my back.

"Okay! I believe the equipment is just over there," she pointed to the other side of the gym where coach had set up these box things with rulers on them. As we walked over there, Dawn wanted to strike up a conversation.

"I'm not sure why," she began. "But for some reason I feel like I've got a real long arm length."

"I raised an eyebrow at this. "What? What makes you say that?"

"Well you see..." Dawn said, fidgeting. "One of my Pokémon partners is a Mamoswine, and it tends to easily get out of hand. I always say there's no need to worry with taking care of it, but Mamoswine can be a real pain, see as a Swinub it really loved my poffins and that's still true to this day. But... Mamoswine's just so energetic, and stubborn...! And when it charges at me when I have poffins ready I have to hold my hands out frantically so as not to get hurt. I guess that's why I think my arms are so long," she ended, sticking her tongue out whilst sweat dropping.

I also sweat-dropped, "erm... Wow, talk about an issue... My Charizard use to not listen to me, but now we're as thick as well... Hariyama's Thick Fat?" I had no other analogies to think of.

Dawn busted out a bright smile and giggled at that, "nice joke, Ash! You're funny."

"Thanks," I smirked, not too many people make _nice_ comments about my jokes. As a kid in elementary school, Mom use to say I was the school's jokester, and often got into trouble as a result... Ergh.

We did what we had to do at the back-saver, I was at eight inches, her measurement was twelve, pretty standard stuff apparently according to coach.

After that, Dawn left to do the other last few tasks and the next up was Ursula. "Well..." she grunted as she approached. "This'll be the first time I've had to be paired with a boy for this sort of task."

I couldn't help but smile awkwardly and scratched the back of my head, "believe me, this is also my first time with all this. Especially having to change partners each time and all that."

"Oh!" she snickered. "Not use to being the center of attention are we?" she laughed, but then realized she was partaking in said 'attention giving,' so Ursula went red in the face and stared in the other direction.

"Uh... Heh heh... Well, might as well get started shall we?" I suggested. "I still need to do the flex-arm hang. Just lemme get a drink of water."

I hurried over to the tank to quench my thirst, just as Ursula turned around to talk to me. After those push-ups, the walking around the gym, and exhausting my throat out with conversations, I need this drink. Remember how I mentioned Casey? Well, to my chagrin, there she was, with Leaf. Oh no...

"Er... Hi, ladies," I awkwardly greeted.

"Well, well, Mr. Harem over here paying some other girls some attention huh? I'd be careful if I were you returning back," laughed Casey, she then continued. "Don't worry, Leaf here has explained... Everything to me, after I saw your whole interaction with Misty. Gotta say, didn't know the Pallet Town Elementary baseball pitcher would be such a catch among the girls."

Leaf snickered at this, this ticked me off. "Oh come on! I have enough of a issue dealing with them as it is, Leaf! I never, ever could've even thought of ending up with a harem. And for your information Casey, after I became a Pokémon trainer I quit being the pitcher of the team." Back before I was ten, when most, if not all kids can get their Pokémon licenses, I was actually a team member for the school's baseball team, I'm surprised anyone still remembers that.

Leaf rolled her eyes. "Remember Ash," she cautioned. "There's a reason this is all happening, the challenge of having these girls after you could for all we know be intended to help you in the long run somehow."

"Yes, yes," I groaned. "Anyways, I'm thirsty." I drank my water fast, and hurried back to the girls, startled by the whole interaction we had just had, I only can hope no one gets jealous by the fact that Leaf and Casey were there...

"What took you?" Ursula confronted me. "The bar is ready, so hurry up!" Whew, thank goodness she didn't notice the other two.

Because I am who I am, Ursula went first on the bar, she lasted holding on for ten seconds. Apparently Dawn had gone on the bar before, because when I told her her time stamp, she began to gloat how she out did Dawn by one whole second... What is it between those two? Next was my turn, and I lasted fifteen seconds, go me!

"Not bad Ash," Ursula commented as we walked back. "You hung in there a lot longer than what I would've expected."

"Ha! Thanks, you did well too, you have good arm strength," I laughed.

My next partner was May, although everything didn't appear to be too well...

"Hey, Ash..." she frowned, looking at me straight in the eyes, she's not too happy... "What is it, huh? Do you not enjoy my company?"

"W-what are you talking about?"

"I saw the way you were talking to that purple haired girl, and that fortune-telling Leaf, are you a double timer or something?!"

"N-no!" I countered. "They just happened to be there and I thirsty, honest!" I was alarmed, I was having hold my hands out to defend myself.

"Hmm..."

"So... My arms are pretty tired... Uh..." I looked my sheet over, there were still a few more things to take care of, including a timed mile run, though knowing the P. E. system here, we get to do that on Monday on the field. But out of all the remaining exercises, the truck lift would give my arms a rest.

"Done the trunk lift yet May?"

"Um, no. You want to do _that_ one..?"

"Yeah," I replied, May seems... Hesitant about the trunk lift oddly. I wonder why...

We pulled out a mat, and I got a ruler to do the measuring with. All the while May was getting more, and more nervous, but as she got onto her stomach to lie down, I realized why.

I never noticed at first, as Brock would say my romance and sexuality meter is as thick as a brick wall, let alone my empathy/sensitivity sensors, but now I realized that May's got a huge chest! Like, they're big, and when she attempted to lie flat she couldn't quite do one-hundred percent... It left her shoulders heightened a little. And if you could see it, May probably is billowing embarrassment smoke out her ears, and her face was as red as Ursula's earlier today! Plus she looked _really_ uncomfortable with her chest all squeezed like that.

"Um... N-never mind," I soothed; oh Arceus why...? "We can still check your trunk lift even if you aren't... all the way down..."

"U-uh... Y-yeah! Totally…" May stammered. Man... Just looking at her pressed chest is already too much for me...

I placed the ruler down and May did the whole... Snake thing? I really don't know how to else to word it, whatever May's chin reached the eleven inches which I marked down. I then did the trunk lift and I also got eleven on the lift. To say May was a little uncomfortable still after the whole... Chest thing would be to say Seviper makes sense to battle Forretress without Flamethrower. She's still peeved about it! Don't hurt me please...

With them all satisfied by now, the last person I needed to work with to complete the circle was Serena. But I needed a break so I began talking to Pikachu.

"... Man I tell you, these girls are hard to please... Some more than others, Bianca's a handful; Misty and Iris are both full of themselves, and May got so jealous because I was talking to Leaf and Casey..."

"Pika pipi, Pikapi..."

"And still there's the issue of eating this weekend and I have-"

"Hi Ash!" Gah! It was just Serena, she had come up behind me and I wasn't paying attention, certainly took me by surprise! "Um... Feeling rested yet?"

"Q-quite," I stammered, still taken aback by Serena's voice cutting through my thoughts.

"I-I'm sorry, I must've startled you when I did that, coming up behind you and then yelling 'Hi Ash' like that," she sighed, clearly upset at having unsettled me.

"Hey, listen, don't worry about it," I comforted. "Let's just get working huh? So, what've you not done yet?"

"Well... Um, I have yet to do those curl ups..."

"Ah, that's when I have to stand on your feet, while you use your torso strength to lift yourself up."

"Oh... Yeah, great..."

I had to grab another mat since Dawn was now using it for her trunk lift. "So, you or me first?" I offered.

"How about you Ash? I'm a little rusty on how to do these things."

Deciding to humor Serena – I seriously doubt one can forget how to do these things – I got down on my back and told to stand on my feet while I had to go up and down. Personally I find this one painful, hurts my rear... Anyhow with Serena as my counter I got up to seventeen curl-ups. "Gah...! Thanks," I gasped, gosh this was killer, I need a moment. I grabbed the bottom of my shirt to wash the sweat off of my face, only to well... Remember that I'm a dude.

"Eek!" Serena nearly yelled, facing away from me, face color, pure crimson. I guess her little shriek caught the others' attention cause as I stood up, they all were looking, and then covering their eyes.

"What?" I asked, bemused. "Never seen a guy's stomach before?"

"Ash you idiot!" they shrieked, minus Bianca who just stared, and Serena who was staying silent. Misty being the loudest, "of course we haven't!" All of their faces look like a sea of Charizard tails, I tell you...

"I mean Misty," I went on, "you have no trouble walking around school with your mid-drift showing, if anything you're the one who should watch it."

At this, the ginger went red and angrily slapped my face! Ow... Guess I deserved that. Geez, given her violent record from what I've heard she's more of a boy than a girl...

"Eh... Heh heh... Hey Serena?"

"Huh? Oh, yes Ash?"

"Your turn you know?"

"Oh, right."

Serena sighed as she got into position, and got a little flustered knowing I was above her, as he got red when she looked up to see me looking down at her, not that I was doing it with a perverted intention! She tried to do some curl ups, but at five she was running out of steam...

"I... I can't do it!" she wailed, falling back.

"Come on!" I said back, "two days ago on Monday you yourself told me that even though you hate it, you _still_ can endure those Rhyhorn race practices your Mom puts you through. If you can do that, then you can totally muster the will to keeping going. Never give up till the end, Serena! Let's see some guts huh?!"

Her eyes shot at this, a smirk crossed her face. She found strength and with a fighting will she did another six, although on the eleventh she flailed at the end, and fell, gasping. "Please... No more," she pleaded. "Ugh...!"

"Haha! You're strong y'know? You did great," I stated, stepping off her feet and holding out a hand. She took it, and I helped her up right.

Note, never do that in front of other girls, cause I faintly heard this: "He held her hand!"

"No fair, I want to be helped up by him!"

"Maybe I should've laid there on Wednesday and had him help me up..."

Oh boy... What have I spawned, sweat dropping all the while as I jotted our scores down. Suddenly, "help!"

I whipped around and saw Dawn on the floor, looking as if she tripped. May was frantic, "Dawn? Dawn?! What happened? Are you alright?"

"Mmm mm, yeah... No need to worry," she said. "I must've slipped, that's all. Could... _Someone_ help me up?"

I hurried over, "here, I'll help you."

"Oh puh-lease," groaned Ursula, "she's feigning for your attention Ash!"

This didn't seem to deter Dawn as I basically fell into her trap and helped her up. She clasped my hand with her other one gratefully. "Thanks."

I just smiled as Ms. Skyla called us all over...

* * *

AGAIN, LUNCH! Beautiful, only problem being I have less food on my tray this time around. "That's not like you Ashy-boy," Gary commented at the lunch line. "Normally you'd have enough food to feed a Munchlax."

I nervously chuckled, "Yeah... About that, the problem is, is that I have to conserve money for a bit, so I'm going to have to go cold-Turkey for a bit."

We payed, Gary went off to be with the guys while I had gone off with the girls, given that they were dragging me anyways... At first some of them didn't notice, but May did. "Your poor soul!" she exclaimed, noticing my expression after I had finished. She pulled out her backpack and heaved this heavy chip bag, looks good, "Thought I needed this today... Haha, but you need it more than I do it seems."

"Thanks May!" I cheered. "Hey... Um, I need to tell you guys something..." I then explained about my budget to her and Dawn. "So uh... Dawn..."

"Yes?" the bluenette said, perking up, I think she's getting where I'm going with this, her smile tells it all.

"Um, can I maybe cash in on that 'friend' discount at your café tomorrow during lunch?"

"Of course!" she squealed, "we open at around nine o' clock, and close at around three so it's no problem at all! But wait, what about your dinner tonight and breakfast?"

Well, at that, ALL the girls turned around and instantly started offering me dinner at their places tonight. "Ladies! Ladies, please! I'm quite fine for breakfast, AND dinner! It's just that the weekends going to be a little rough and..."

Well, the debate lasted for a while after that. I had rather hoped that would go more diplomatically but alas... For my dinner tomorrow Bianca ended up getting dibs on bringing me out, Serena would help a little by providing more food spares after cooking class today, and the rest would 'take care of me' on Sunday. If Mom were here... Oh Arceus...

Thankfully I was saved by the Bronzong as everyone had to leave to go do things during lunch after they had finished. Welp, time to go lay in the grass for a bit before cooking class.


	5. Weekend Escapades - Part One

**Author's Note** : Yo guys, it has been TOO long since I've updated this all for you, because this was just a real son of a gun to finish. A lot happened between last chapter and this one, well, I became a full pledged Pokeshipper for a start (as you can tell from my last few postings). IDK when next chapter will be out, honestly at some point I feel I need to do a time skip to save time, I'm not making any promises as of now.

 _Weekend Escapades – Part One_

I laid out there for the rest of the break. I just really needed to think, about how the weekend is going to end up, ugh… I may need to give Leaf a visit, I need her counseling! Well, not right now, she can wait till after school, she's made lunch time certainly hectic for me for the first three days of school already, and I'm not in the mood to be given another 'fortune' anytime soon.

"Aaah-agh!" I yelled in frustration, wriggling, pounding the ground. "I need to climb a tree or something… Anything to distract me from all these harem issues…"

So I got up, and high tailed it up a tree with Pikachu, if I remember this is the same tree me and Iris climbed back at the start of school. Now if I remember, she said I had to go on this branch… And one was right here under these thick leaves… And then…

I reached a thick branch soon enough and just sat there, pondering… Eventually the school's Bronzong gonged, and I headed off to cooking class.

I guess May had yet to get into a cooking class yet, because she was certainly nowhere among the other girls in the class, even among the other brunette's, and, as usual, Brock I see was going from girl to girl infatuated. Serena saw him doing this, and her sweat drop, we had somehow ended up as partners again…

"That guy sure does like his classmates," she chuckled. She then sighed and gave me a sort of… Pained look.

"That's just Brock being Brock," I said. "He's always has been a… ladies man."

Serena nodded before she made a bit of what I could only describe as a sorrowfully pained face, she bit her lip. "Strange, yet watching Brock it feels like I'm looking at a mirror…"

"What do you mean by that?"

She grew bashful at that remark, and twirled her hanging hair locks nervously, she looks… Dare I say it? Kinda… Attractive…Doing that… Not gonna lie, never expected that I'd be the type who would take a liking to a bashful girl. Oh just curse me alr-… No wait, I already am – never mind.

Anyways, back Serena's answer; I'm getting too flustered right now. "Well, um… Well, y'know, it must be odd… To have so many girls…well… _Interested_ in you… Um… I-I-I'm sorry! I… For bringing this up… I'm sure our antics are sometimes too much for you."

I couldn't help but sigh sympathetically, despite all the pain those girls were causing me, I couldn't help but like the attention in a strange way, it felt nice to be able to talk to girls in a normal way (well, _almost_ normally). "Well, I don't mind at all," I finally said.

"Y-you don't?!" Serena asked, I could tell she wasn't quite expecting me to answer like that.

"Not really, sure, I think it's silly fluff. But if you like someone, I guess it somewhat doesn't hurt to make an effort to get them to notice you." Man, I am talking complete bull! I said the exact _opposite_ thing to Brock just a few years ago on Valentine's Day after getting flustered with his flirting, truth was I thought it was stupid to do something like that. But I suppose, I guess these girls' fascination for me somewhat is making me take back those things I said.

I left it at that, and soon Mr. Cilan came in and called the class to order…

 **O** o **O** o **O**

Ah! Finally! Time to go home! And to stay away from Leaf, nuh-uh, not interested in finding out if I burn down my house today or not, 'cause Mom will kill me if I do… or if I forget to water the plants… Shoot, I should take care of that today actually. Ha ha… Hmm.

Remember how Serena promised me extras after cooking class? Well, she certainly delivered on that promise well enough, made enough minestrone soup to last me through dinner, and snack times throughout the weekend, given that it's me anyhow. Oh, and she also went through the trouble of making Pikachu some of these things called Pokepuffs, she catered them especially for electric types, so she says.

Me and my Pokémon did what we had to do with the plants – the watering I of course mean – and sometime after that I felt the need to stretch my legs. "C'mon buddy," I called, leaning down to give Pikachu space to jump onto my shoulders. "We're off for a walk. Got a great feeling about this, don't know why but I do."

And so we walked, eventually as we did so I realized we were walking towards the path that leads to Viridian City, and there, standing proud and tall was an ash tree nearby. "Awesome…" I awed, it looked big and just the sort of tree one would want to climb right away.

It was then I noticed a branch shifting… A Pokémon perhaps? No, wait; hold on, I'd recognize that purple hair anywhere. Oh, there's a face, same eyes as I expected. Yep, that's Iris. "Hey!" I called.

"Oh hey!" Iris called back, looking down, "Wanna join me up here, Ash?!" she yelled.

"Uh, sure, why not!?" I yelled back, going to the bottom of the tree and beginning to climb upward. It took me a bit of a while, but soon I was way up high and reached the branch Iris was at. "What took you?" she teased when I poked my head near her hips seeing as she was right by the tree trunk. Oh dude, I am WAY too close to her hips… _Help_.

"Well, I am exhausted," I laughed. She smiled and scooched over to give me room to sit myself down next to her. It was then I noticed why the journey up the tree felt so warm and sweaty, it was sunset. "Wow, just look at that, huh Iris?"

Iris' eyes shimmered at the sight. "It sure is…" she trailed off, before giving an infectious smile towards me. "Glad I was able to share this sunset with you."

"Me too," I said, looking at her and then back at the ocean where the sun was disappearing into. Normally I'm not one to get washed up in the waking sunrise or downing sunset. But… Having to share it with somebody other than say, Brock, Gary, Drew, Paul, or my Mother felt different. I wanted to say something, but instead I was shocked by what felt like a hand on my left hand, and Pikachu is on my right so… No surprise there I suppose, because I looked and sure enough, Iris is holding my hand, it's weirdly nice, sorta like how Serena's, or Dawn's, or Misty's hands feel…

I looked up. Locking eyes with Iris', the eye contact she made must've thrown her off guard, because I saw her blush, and she turned away, pulling her hand off of mine.

"S-s-sorry," she murmured, I guess she must be really embarrassed following that display, I'm feeling my face heat up as well…

"Ha," I nervously chuckled, "Never mind… It's, um, okay…"

Just then, Axew chose to make the perfect time to appear. Axew made a cooing remark as it popped out which quickly distracted Iris away from me, much to my own relief over the situation. After that little show we both decided to get off the tree and back on the ground.

Iris meanwhile was completely distracted by Axew's antics that he was doing inside of her hair, popping in and out of it like a 'whack-a-Diglet' sort of game. At this, I had an idea. "Hey, Axew?" I asked.

"Yu?"

I dug into my pockets for _his_ Pokeball. "I have a little special friend that I think you'll like to meet. C'mon out!"

I then released my Scraggy, this little fella of a Pokémon I hatched from an egg less than a year ago. Scraggy's a feisty fella, for sure.

"Scrag?"

"Scraggy," I smiled as I took a knee to get in close to him, with Pikachu exchanging his usual greetings. "I want you to say to Axew. I think you two can be good friends."

Scraggy turned around, at first I thought that he looked like he was about to Headbutt Axew, but Axew gave him such a warm, excited welcome that Scraggy too had to respond in kind.

"I knew Scraggy would get along just fine with Axew," I said to Iris, as the two began chasing each other around in a game of tag. "Scraggy's young yet, hatched from egg several months ago. Your Axew seems like the fun sort for him to get along with." Huh, I'm a hypocrite come to think of it, Misty's got a friendly little Togepi I could've shown Scraggy to…

"Well," Iris began, "Axew isn't weak, if that's what you're implying…"

"Which I'm not."

"… But Axew has been in need of a new friend as of late." She left it at that, and went to go talk to Scraggy. Iris smiled at me after she petted Scraggy on the head. "Your Scraggy's skin is well looked after, you must be a kind trainer to it."

"That I am," I responded. Axew and Scraggy played around for a bit more before me and Iris realized what time it was. Well, she did, my stomach instead just decided to growl loudly.

"Oh, heh heh…" I nervously chuckled.

"Dinner time for you?" Iris asked incredulously. I just blushed.

"Um, yeah, haha! Y'know me, always needing to eat," I muttered, rubbing my head sheepishly. I was lucky, Pikachu and Scraggy both were looking pretty hungry by then anyway.

"What a kid… Always thinking with your stomach," Iris scoffed, I was about to reply when I heard a similar rumbling to my own, and it came from Iris… "Um… Well, I guess it is pretty late," she chuckled whilst sweat dropping.

"Yeah," I said as I recalled Scraggy back into his Pokéball, "We best get going. See ya at school if I don't see you again all weekend!" I called as I ran off for home. I said this whilst looking back, and she winked at me! No, stop it blood, stop going to my face!

Did I ever talk about Serena's cooking? It's no Brock level cooking, but dang, Serena can stew some good minestrone…

 **O** o **O** o **O**

The dream I had last night was weird, it was of the girls… Again… Only this time I was being chased around through some city by them, no one was around in said city. But every corner I turned, somehow there was one of them who were _just_ behind me, and they kept trying to pounce on me! Scary… I'm like that one toy back in pre-school that every kid wanted to get their hands on first – or even more weirdly but true – A Shoujo Manga harem protagonist being chased about by the girls in his dreams! I swear this harem thing is too much for me…

Glad I woke up though, that dream was making me sweat bullets…!

After breakfast I did a quick run around the neighborhood, and then spent the rest of my time watching some Poke-Triatholon before I realized it was lunch time. I get to see Dawn in a maid outfit now… WHY AM I THINKING LIKE THIS?! I AM _NOT_ BROCK!

I packed up my team and headed out; following the sheet of paper Dawn gave me to where the Maid café was set up. I found it on a lonely looking corner in town adjacent to a field, no wonder I never saw it, it's quite out of the way of my usual path, the sign they had read that it was the _Mountain Hut Maid Café_.

"Wow, look at the Miltank they have over there buddy," I commented when we came in through a gate and spotted a field where a ton of Miltank were grazing. "Guess that's where they get their dairy products from."

Place was fairly busy when I walked in through the door. No Maid was waiting on me, shoot… Then I saw out of the corner of my eye Dawn walking up to me. Weird as this sounds, I just couldn't help looking at what she was wearing – well, obviously a maid's outfit, she does work for a maid café, duh Ash…

Dawn had her hair up in its usual way, but now she was wearing a sleeveless black dress, the skirt went as far as above her knee's, the skirt ending with a frilly white touch. She had some kind of white apron on that was tied around the back of her waist. Dawn also adorned white stockings, ending it was some three inch or so dark blue high heels.

Dawn quickly walked up to me, held the dish tray she was carrying around to her chest, and then closed her eyes before politely bowing in front of me. "Hello! Welcome home," she greeted. Oh Arceus… I do believe I just felt my heart skip a beat. I completely forgot that maid café workers greet every customer like that.

I stared blankly for a moment, but Dawn was giggling, absolutely beside herself with joy. "I can't believe I just said that to you…" she then straightened herself up before pointing to a table. "Please, allow me to seat you." And then lead me and Pikachu to our table.

"By the way," she said, as we sat ourselves down, "Don't I look good in this maid outfit?" she flirted, doing a twirl in her dress. I could feel the slight heat on my cheeks as she did that, it really suited her well.

"Uh… Y-yeah," I said, my face feeling like it was in the neutral position but my mouth spoke like I was staring. "You… You look good."

"Thanks," she smirked with a wink, "I'll be right back. And don't worry," she added, "I won't forget the coupon on your tab." And she ran off quickly.

I just quickly looked away, still feeling pretty flustered following that scene to go and search the menu… But honestly I probably only came here only because if there's one thing I know about places like these, is that they can serve some great Moomoo milk, or so they say rather. I ordered a whole team round – of course I wouldn't forget to feed myself, I got myself a cheeseburger, because those are just so nice, can't convince me otherwise.

It was then that things got really weird when I saw someone enter the door to the café, it was May. She looked around for a bit, was she looking for Dawn?

May continued to look around, her sapphire eyes eventually met mine and she made her way over to me. "Oh, hey Ash!" she said as walked up and sat across from me. "Huh, fancy running into you here!"

"Y-yeah," I stammered, surprised at how quickly she seated herself. "Uh… You interested in joining me for lunch today? We could both ask Dawn for a discount…"

"Oh, oh no I couldn't, I just need a quick dose of this places great hot cocoa and pastries and I need to be going."

"Oh, why's that?"

"I have a little brother, his name's Max. He's out at the moment and Mom told me to pick him up from his little… Meet up or something," she murmured, sweat-dropping. I didn't even know she had a brother.

It was then that Dawn showed up, and… Is it me, or is she gripping her tray way too much? "O-oh, um," she began, before offering a polite smile and bowed, "Hello. Welcome home," she said to May.

"It's good to be back, Dawn," May casually. "I'll be having my usual order of pastries."

"Sure thing May. Uh… So you're sitting with Ash today…?" Oh no, is she getting jealous…?

"Well, I wasn't _exactly_ expecting him here," May quipped, but as she said that, she looked at me and I could totally tell she was blushing. "But there is nowhere else to sit… Besides, I'll be quick; I need to pick up Max at one anyways."

"Okay," Dawn said, eying May carefully before smiling at me and went away – Leaving me alone with May sitting across from me.

"Well…" I began, sweat dropping. "I guess this is a bit of an impromptu date isn't it?"

"Y-yeah," she stammered. "But we aren't even a 'thing' though so… No one might think this is weird, I mean, we share snacks in coordinating after all."

"Yeah we do," I said, more of a confirmation to myself if anything. "Yeah, this won't be anything different than that, won't it?" I said, beaming. I didn't see her immediate reaction, because I got distracted by my Pokémon, but when I turned back to her, she gasped slightly and turned away. I think she was blushing…

We just sorta talked about random things after that. Mostly we talked about cereal and snack brands and had a lovely debate over which one we preferred. During which, every time Dawn passed by she'd pay little attention to May, and would instead wink at me or ask me a kind question with definitely a lot more care than she what she offered May.

And I could tell May wasn't all that pleased with Dawn because of that, she frowned whenever that happened whilst we were waiting but would perk up if I looked at her.

Eventually Dawn got around to serving up Pokémon's milk. When she did, she said – "Okay guys, eat up. Besides, with a trainer like Ash, you guys must also be pretty hungry, with bottomless stomachs like this cutie," she teased, giving me a wink. Dawn is very pretty when she does that, I'll admit…

I guess Dawn really wanted to lay on her sweet side with me because I just could not keep track of all the winks she was giving me as I ate. It's weird and I really wanted to tell one of her co-workers to make her sto-… No, I don't want Dawn to get fired, I'm not the only one she was serving today and from what I could tell as I watched Dawn hand out meals and Moomoo milk glasses to her other customers she really does love what she does here. She laughs with them, smiles at the kids, and well… Just looks beautiful as she goes about the café with all of her beauty prancing around.

Now if only she'd stop with shaking her hips every time she passes me, or sticks one heel in the air like she's posing for a… Whatever you'd pose for, I don't know… Whatever the case Dawn was absolutely flirting with me the entire time, I… Strangely felt something in my chest the entire time.

May meanwhile was completely distracted by her croissants to notice anymore of Dawn's flirting, I guess I could live with that. Eventually May had to glance at the time, and asked to pay upfront. She threw me a quick wink and handed a croissant over to me that she had as a spare and left. Man, I think I'll save this yummy thing for later…

"Bye, Ash!" she yelled as exited the door.

"Bye May!" I called back, watching her go. Dawn gave a wave to May as the brunette left the building.

Soon I finished up my own meal, and ironically after I paid Dawn told me she was on break now; that's pretty convenient…

She told me to wait for her at the back door where the employee's normally exit. I did so, as I was waiting whilst sitting on a crate, Pikachu went off to talk to the Miltank. During which, I got the opportunity to watch as one of the café workers – I believe her name was Spring – call in the whole corral to be milked at their nearby barn. Those Miltank certainly were well trained from what I saw.

It wasn't long after I saw that show of well-trained Pokémon filing that Dawn finally showed up in black maid dress. "That's me done for a bit," she chirped, "The lunch is always the most exhausting part of my workday on the weekends lemme tell you."

"Heh," I chuckled nervously, "Guess me and May didn't help with easing your workload then now did we? I saw that you were pretty busy today."

"What? You and May, a nuisance to me?" she started, blushing a bit whilst waving her hands at me dismissively. "N-no, you two weren't a bother, not at all, Ash. I… actually, and really enjoyed being your 'maid' for your lunch hour today." She finished, scratching one cheek awkwardly, although I noticed a lack of May's name being mentioned. But man, I can tell she really _is_ in love with me…

"Aw, thanks," I said, not wanting this to be awkward. "Anyways, what did you want to meet me out here for?"

"Oh, right!" she gasped, as if she had forgotten what she wanted. "Ash Ketchum, I challenge you to a three-on-three Pokémon battle right here, right now mister!"

A Pokémon battle?! Oh, she is on…! "What are the rules for this battle?" I asked.

"First trainer with two wins is the winner."

"All right then. I accept your challenge, Dawn Berlitz. Let's do this!"

We moved out onto an area of the meadow and got ready, Dawn on one side, me and Pikachu on the other – and okay, seriously, she's battling me with a maid gown on? Well okay, whatever.

"Okay Pikachu, I'm saving you for later, kay?" Pikachu nodded in confirmation. "Awesome! Froakie, I choose you!" With a usual swing I revealed the small frog Pokémon. My Froakie's a gift along with two other Pokémon that Mom sent me from the Kalos region.

Dawn then raised her arm and revealed her own Pokéball. "Piplup, spotlight!" And with that, Piplup was ready. It seems we're having a battle between two water types.

"You can have the first move Dawn!" I called, I noticed she smirked when I said that.

"All right then, Piplup, Whirlpool!"

"Froakie, dodge that!"

Froakie tried dodging Piplup's giant Whirlpool, but he got caught anyways. It seems like Dawn's familiar with using this move all the time, because she had Piplup follow up with a Hydro Pump which blasted through the Whirlpool and hit Froakie.

"Ki!" he cried, as I watched him hit the grass.

"Froakie!" I called, alarmed. "Are you all right? Can you still battle?" He nodded in the positive. "Then use Water Pulse!"

"Piplup! Use Bubblebeam!" Piplup's Bubblebeam and Froakie's Water Pulse collided, causing an explosion; I quickly took advantage of the smoke.

"Charge, Froakie!" The water frog quickly did as I said. "Use Double Team!"

When the smoke cleared, Piplup was now surrounded by Froakie and his clones. "Use Pound!" I called.

I saw Dawn grimace at that, as she watched Piplup take the hit. "Piplup, counter by spinning and use Bubblebeam!"

Now I had to watch as Froakie's clones got destroyed and Froakie got hit straight on. "We won't lose!" I called to Froakie. "Froakie, use Water Pulse!"

"And we won't lose either! Piplup, Bide!"

"Uh oh." Sure enough, what happened, happened. Piplup took the damage, and threw it back at Froakie. Froakie fell to one knee, clearly exhausted.

"Okay then…" I said, racking my brain for a way to get around this. "Froakie, go in for Pound!"

"Fro!" he cried, launching forward.

"Piplup," Dawn called out, with a graceful swing as her skirt flew from the force. "Peck, let's go!"

The two Pokémon met each other in the middle between us before they both flew back from the force of their Peck and Pound attacks colliding.

Piplup landed in front of Dawn, but Froakie landed in front of me on his stomach with swirls in his eyes. "Froakie!" I yelled.

"Ki.. frofro…" Well, that ends that I guess.

"All right!" Dawn chirped, delighted. Wow is all I can think, she and Piplup really worked well to defeat me and Froakie.

"Thanks Froakie… You did your best," I said, as I recalled him to his Pokéball.

Dawn finished her cheering and Piplup ran to the sideline. "That's one victory for me, Ash! One more and I'll win."

"This battles just getting started, there's no way I'm losing so easily to you," I responded, flashing a smile. That seemed to have gotten a reaction out of Dawn 'cause she blushed.

"That is true Ash, but I'm not going easy on you. Now, Togekiss, spotlight!"

"Torkoal, I choose you!" I responded and both Pokémon showed up on the field.

"Tor… KOAL!"

"Toge… KISS!" Let's get started.

"All right Torkoal! Flamethrower!" Torkoal fired the Flamethrower quickly at Togekiss which landed. It sent the flying Pokémon back by quite a bit.

"Use Air Slash!" Dawn called. Togekiss then fired the shot.

"Torkoal, dodge then Flamethrower!" Torkoal barely hopped out of the way and fired a Flamethrower once more. This time, Togekiss flew out of the way.

"Togekiss, Sky Attack!" Dawn shouted. Togekiss began to fly around gracefully as she prepared the attack.

"Use Defense Curl!" I called to Torkoal. It did so, and when Togekiss finished charging she charged toward us. "Another Defense Curl, Torkoal!"

And because of how many defense boosts we got up, it was Togekiss who bounced right off of Torkoal's shell. "Agh!" Dawn grunted.

"Great job, Torkoal!" I called.

"KOAL!"

"Let's use Air Slash then Togekiss!"

"Dodge that, and use Body Slam."

Togekiss fired her attack fired Torkoal managed to hop out of the way. It waited, then Torkoal jumped into the air and managed to land on Togekiss, knocking her to the ground whilst Torkoal landed on the grass.

Togekiss brought herself back up, and tried to brush off the damage to focus on the battle. I can tell this battle's nearly over.

"Togekiss, use Aura Sphere!" Dawn called. Quickly Togekiss fired the blue ball of fighting type energy.

"Hang in there Torkoal!" Torkoal took the Aura Sphere. I knew I had to end the battle quickly. "Now, use Overheat!"

"Togekiss, dodge that!" Togekiss tried to dodge, but Overheat landed, but to my amazement, Togekiss was still standing, albeit badly singed.

"We're still in this…" Dawn said, "Now Togekiss, Air Slash!"

"Kiss!"

"Use Flamethrower, Torkoal!"

"Tor!" Torkoal fired a Flamethrower which collided with the Air Slash.

"Now use Overheat!" I shouted. Torkoal was quick, and fired the huge inferno at Togekiss, Dawn tried countering with an Aura Sphere, but was too late as Togekiss landed in front of Dawn. She held her hands to her mouth in shock as Togekiss laid defeated.

"You were awesome, Torkoal. Now have a good rest," I remarked as I recalled it.

Dawn quickly pulled out a Pokéball and said her thanks to Togekiss and recalled her.

"Right," I began, "It's the final round isn't it?"

"You got it, Ash," Dawn called back. "We're even so far, but who knows who'll win this round."

I smirked at that, I knew it was time… "Pikachu," I said, turning to him. I then stuck my hand out onto the field. "I choose you!"

Quickly my partner jumped onto the field. It was then I noticed Dawn's confident smile. "I figured you'd save Pikachu for last," she said, "Which is why…" She then raised a ball confidently. "My power battling Pokémon is last. Mamoswine, spotlight!"

With a flash, the big tusk Pokémon appeared before Pikachu. Uh oh, I should've figured this was coming. Dawn mentioned she had a Mamoswine to me just yesterday too! A ground type against an electric type… This'll be tough, but nothing I wouldn't be up for.

Dawn quickly took the lead. "Mamoswine, Ice Shard!"

"Pikachu, dodge that and go for Iron Tail!" Pikachu quickly took off and smacked Mamoswine with his tail. That's super-effective against an ice type like Mamoswine…

"SWINE!" it grunted, after taking the damage.

"Woah, easy Mamoswine," Dawn shouted, calming the big beast down. "Use Take Down!"

Mamoswine charged forward and slammed into Pikachu, sending him flying back. "Pikachu, use Quick Attack!"

Pikachu let out a cry and ran towards Mamoswine, Dawn called for Ice Shard, but Pikachu's so strong he smashed through and shoved Mamoswine a feet or two away.

"Mamo…!"

"Cha! Pika, chu."

"Grr…" Dawn growled. "Ice Fang Mamoswine!"

Mamoswine charged forward, its fangs glowing. "Pikachu! Counter that with your Iron Tail!" I called, sweat dropping.

Pikachu quickly leaped forward and struck Mamoswine, but Mamoswine's tusks bit down and Pikachu was sent flying whilst Mamoswine was hyperventilating. It's clear that its taking damage from Pikachu's steel type moves – We gotta wrap this up quick though.

Meanwhile, whilst Pikachu was in the air, Dawn called her next attack. "Now use Hidden Power!"

"SWINE!" and with that fired the attack.

"Spin Pikachu! And come down with Iron Tail!"

Pikachu did just that and spun down, he blasted through the Hidden Power, and with his tail brought it down onto Mamoswine where I saw the big Pokémon fall from all fours. Swirls in its eyes.

Battle over, I win. Whew…

"I lost…" Dawn said sorrowfully. It was then that she perked up a little and laughed as she recalled Mamoswine. "Haha! Ah well, I lost fair and square. You really know how to battle, Ash. You're good."

"You weren't so bad yourself," I replied, beaming back at her – I really had enjoyed our battle, I think she's blushing though. "That was a pretty good challenge."

"Yeah… But then I'm really more of the contest battling type."

"I could tell, some of your moves with Piplup, Togekiss, and Mamoswine looked really refined for them."

"Aw thanks," Dawn chirped before pulling out her Pokegear and checked the time. "Well, I have about fifteen more minutes of my break before I need to get back to work. I'll see you around – and if not this weekend after this I'll see you at school." She finished with a wink.

"Okay," I replied simply with a smile. I waved at her as she went back into the building and I left the premise.

And now I have my 'date' with Bianca coming up.

* * *

The winner of Ash's heart (girlfriend): www. strawpoll. me/12641059

The most teased: www.s trawpoll .me /126 41116


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